FANS CHEER HOBBIT PREVIEW AT COMIC-CON

Reports coming out of Comic-Con about the screening of 12 minutes of scenes from director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings prequel(s), The Hobbit, had as much to do with fan reaction as with the preview itself. The Associated Press’s David Germain wrote, “If reaction to The Hobbit footage at Comic-Con is any indication, Peter Jackson has another couple of blockbusters on his hands. The crowd … went wild.” Reuter’s Plya Sinha-Roy observed that the audience welcomed the preview “with deafening screams.” James White of Britain’s Empire magazine summed up: “All in all it was something of a triumph for Jackson and his crew, with screaming from the crowd throughout and Justin Bieber levels of hysteria ….”And Jen Harper of the website Zap2It.com remarked, “If the audience reaction to the films’ footage is any indication, Jackson might want to start prepping another Oscar speech.” Somewhat surprisingly Jackson decided to screen the preview in 2D at the standard 24 frames per second. At an exhibitors convention last April, a screening of Hobbit footage in 3D and at 48 frames per second — the preferred format that Jackson has selected for Part 1 of the prequel (An Unexpected Journey) when it opens in December — was greeted with considerable criticism by audience members who complained that it looked “too realistic.” On Saturday Jackson said during a Comic-Con panel discussion that the best way to experience that format is by watching the entire movie in it, not just a brief reel of excerpts. The preview reel that was shown at Comic-Con was posted online — briefly — on Saturday but was quickly removed, presumably because the studio had assigned personnel to YouTube duty to make certain that no unauthorized copies were uploaded. A rather nondescript trailer for the movie was posted on YouTube last December.